I wonder....

I was wondering last night if other people ever experience the sensations that ripped through my body after inhaling a pumpkin seed into my trachea and lodging it there for a few seconds (felt like an hour or two) The kind of coughing fit where the expulsive efforts of your body's survival gag reflex and desperate measures to rid yourself of said foreign body squeezes every last bit of blood out of your core into your periphery and makes your arms, legs and face feels as if they are going to burst. I was reassured by a dear friend this morning that in fact it has happened to him before and from that information I deduced that perhaps it is not an individual affliction borne strictly by myself. I experienced the same feeling this morning when I coughed while sitting on the john, only this time it felt like something burst in my abdomen and radiated out to my outer thighs and stayed there for a while. I thought that maybe that it what the first signs of bursting abdominal aneurysm felt like but that was hours ago, I am typing this so I have to deduce that what ever the feeling was that my innards are for the most part intact and still functioning. The experience did give me pause for a while, thinking about how close to death any of us is at anytime. Pop! and there you are half naked on the toilet, your earthly remains to be discovered by who ever needs to pee next. What a way to go. I guess that would take care of my worrying about walking away from my house, packing up my things and figuring out what to do next, wouldn't it. Ah, yes we make plans and the Universe laughs.
I remember when Doug had a near death experience back a few years ago courtesy of an overworked nurse and a sloppy physician. He was very close to the edge and slipped swiftly over the brink while I was holding his hand after said nurse administered a massive overdose intravenously. When he had just recovered from the insult to his vital systems, he said "Wow, we are all only a heartbeat away from the next world!" Thanks for helping me come back, I wasn't really ready to leave." He was enthralled with the idea of how close he came and the healing power of all the prayers that he got bombarded with from all corners of the earth, pinning him here for a little while longer. He felt them like warm waves of love cascading over him during the 3 days while he was recovering in the hospital from the inadvertent over dose and the systemic infection that had brought him to the ER in the first place. I took the opportunity to send him off to Africa to explore all his existential questions soon after he had totally recovered from the experience, but that is another story for later.
So, I am left with the niggling feeling that something may be gravely amiss with this lovely meat sack that I inhabit. though mostly I think is just another indicator that that may be I am just too fat. I will get back to you if I figure it out, or check the local obits to see if I have finally been silenced from all this perpetual whining. Now off to conquer what is left of this odd day.